St Kilda coach Scott Watters has been sacked on Friday morning.
Hours after ringing morning radio saying he was safe in his job and that reports of disharmony within the club were inaccurate Watters went to a meeting in which he was told he was out.
The move comes a day after former North Melbourne senior coach Dean Laidley left the club to re-join Michael Malthouse and a new high performance manager and senior assistant coach were hired by the Saints.
The move to act on Watters who had a year left to run on his contract comes after abroad review of the football club and in particular the football department by board member Andrew Thompson.
St Kilda has only recently changed president, has parted with former chief executive Michael Nettlefold and will now be in the market for a new coach.
Speaking on Radio SEN earlier today, Watters said suggestions that his relationship with Pelchen was strained were “almost laughable”.
“Chris and I are absolutely perfectly aligned from a list-management point of view and that really was from day one,” Watters said.
He said the decision to trade the likes of club stalwarts Nick Dal Santo and Ben McEvoy was one that had to be made for the club to be rebuilt.
“These are quality people who I have enormous respect for, they’ve been long-term servants of the club,” Watters said.
” … But we’re charged with the responsibility at the club, and this is the list-management group I’m talking about here, to try and get this list back into shape and get it to a point where our supporters feel like they have a list that is going to come back and challenge and force it’s way back into finals contention.